The short film festival that is getting bigger

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy greets ﬁlm-maker Mike Pandey, who was the chief guest, at the inauguration of the sixth edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor and festival coordinator Beena Paul are seen. Photo: S.Gopakumar

IDSFFK begins with 2,000 delegates and 800 entries

With more than 2,000 delegate registrations and 800 entries, the sixth edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) kicked off on a high note at the Kairali theatre in the city on Friday.

Inaugurating the festival, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the relevance of documentaries as a medium that could impact people’s lives was coming to the fore. According to him, the medium was important to bring to limelight various issues that affected the people.

Presiding over the function, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor said festivals such as the IDSFFK were important platforms to promote the hugely neglected medium of visual art that documentaries were.

Film-maker Mike Pandey, who was the chief guest at the function, said such festivals encouraged documentary film-makers and pepped up the medium that was going through a bad patch in terms of finding space amid the commercially driven film industry. Mr. Pandey released the festival book, while Mr. Tharoor released the weekly bulletin of the festival. The inaugural function was followed by screening of the film 5 Broken Cameras, directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi.

The entries will be judged by a jury, including M.R. Rajan, Giona Nazarro, Anjum Rajabali, Kesang Tseten, Vetrimaaran, and Prakash Moorthy.